


An Equal

by HopefulNebula



Category: Alphas
Genre: Canon Autistic Character, Canon Compliant, Canon Disabled Character, Canon Jewish Character, Disability, Gen, Missing Scene, Neurodiversity, POV Third Person, Present Tense
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-15
Updated: 2012-07-15
Packaged: 2017-11-10 00:04:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/460004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HopefulNebula/pseuds/HopefulNebula
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Anna finds her equal. Missing scenes from 1.04 "Rosetta."</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Equal

**Author's Note:**

> This can be read as a companion fic to "[Like Me](http://archiveofourown.org/works/234079)," but stands alone.
> 
> Thank you to Llwyden for making sure all my verb tenses worked with each other.

As the lights go out, Anna tries to decide exactly how she'll be punishing Kosar and Perlich. It isn't that they're leaving her alone -- she can take care of herself, thank you very much, and she has been as long as she can remember -- but that they're inevitably leaving so much evidence behind.

She'd _told_ them to keep the plans somewhere mobile, somewhere that could be carried away in seconds. And when they hadn't listened to her, she'd gone to her superiors.

Except it turns out that her superiors aren't that different from the employees at the "homes" she'd spent her formative years in. Surely, they'd said, Kosar and Perlich know what they're doing. You just don't understand.

She's fine with being the one who can't speak. But the whole point of Red Flag is that she still has things to say, things that are worth listening to.

Anna suspects they'll be listening to her a lot more now.

The lights go on. She hears about a dozen voices, all talking at once. And when the door opens in front of her and reveals two of Rosen's lackeys, she rejoices in her good luck.

If she can bring Rosen in when Kosar had failed, that'll be punishment enough for him.

* * *

Clearly, they don't see her as a threat. That's good. It's something she can work with. She's gotten most of what she has in life by appearing harmless.

Rosen diagnoses her as autistic. He's wrong about that, but then again, so were all the doctors before.

The surprising thing is that the person they assign to watch her -- she guesses he's a transducer of some sort, as Rosen asks him to keep watch on the signals coming to and from the house -- _is_ autistic. She can hear it in his speech, see it in how well-practiced his movements are. They are the movements of someone who's living in a world not built for him, but is forced to pretend to be normal.

The cynical part of her is surprised that someone like Rosen is at all able to handle any neurodiversity that doesn't fit inside the nice little categories he's made up, but she's too pragmatic to entertain the thought for long. Regardless of Rosen's attitudes, Gary is part of Rosen's team.

He figures her language out much faster than most people do. (Of course, _most people_ take one look at her and assume there's nothing to figure out.) It's kind of a comfort, having someone figure her out. It always is. There's that little thrill, that release of tension.

It doesn't happen very often, so it's strange and memorable when it does.

* * *

_I went to live in a group home when I was six_ , she tells him.

"Six..." Gary says. "Six years? Why then? That's so early."

 _My parents died in a car crash,_ she tells him. _They had gone out for the night and left me with a nurse to take care of me, and they never came home. The next morning, someone from the state came to pick me up._

All of this is true. She has no pressing reason to lie about this. (She has no pressing reason to go into any more detail, either. Maybe later she'll tell him about how the police officer never actually talked to her, or how nobody ever explained to her that Mommy and Daddy weren't coming back. Maybe later.)

"You own a house now, or at least it's in your name. You have your own place now. How did you get here?" Gary asks.

It's times like these that Anna is particularly glad to be neurodiverse. She knows Gary and anyone else who might be listening will think she's having trouble moving, not deciding what parts of the truth to tell.

 _There was a man_ , she says. _He came to work at the place where I lived. But he was different. He watched us. And one day he told me that he had a special ability, that he could tell us apart from everybody else. He told me that once I turned eighteen I could come work for them, that they'd help me communicate. He knew I was trying to tell people things. He was the first person who actually listened to me._

"Like I'm listening to you now," Gary says.

 _Yes_ , she replies. _It's good to have people who understand you._

Gary smiles at her, and Anna wonders how many people haven't listened to him before.

* * *

When Gary stands up to Nina, and Nina actually _leaves_ , Anna feels that same strange, rare thrill. She knows that on some level, she's won. Even if he never speaks to her again, even if the rest of Rosen's team gets to her before her own people do, she knows she's changed Gary for the better.

Even when Gary chooses to turn her in, even when she's forced to overwhelm him, she's helped him internalize that he is equal to any neurotypical person.

And when he disconnects her signal later that night, Anna can't help but feel a little proud of him.


End file.
